Dictionary

elephanty en · ADJ

Etymology

From elephant + -y.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of an elephant.
   • ‘The elephant is from a drawing of Rembrandt’s, & I thought it would interest you as being both elephanty & Rembrandty — full of the characteristic qualities of each.[…]’ SCC to PSW, 27 October 1902, BL Add 52761, f. 52. 1902 October 27, John Aplin, editor, The Letters of Philip Webb, volumes III (1899–1902), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2016, →ISBN, page 312:
   • At that moment a crocodile grabs hold of the elephant’s trunk, and the elephant starts thrashing around and trumpeting, and the mouse thinks that she’s having a big elephanty orgasm and he squeaks out, “Oh yeah, baby.” 2009, Anthony McGowan, Jack Tumor, New York, N .Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 54:
   • Sort of elephanty eyes in a wrinkled old face, with short grey hair, a grubby safari shirt and a leathery wide-brimmed hat that looks a hundred years old. 2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, Sceptre, →ISBN:
   • He gave a proud, elephanty bow and set the umbrella down. 2019, Rivka Galchen, Rat Rule 79: An Adventure, Restless Books, →ISBN, page 19:
   • […] I stop the car in front of this little hotel some fellow has just put up in town and which is called the “Elephant Castle”. There is nothing elephanty about it except that it is all round and nice so I reckon that the fellow was thinking about the elephant’s foot but not an elephant house. 1986, Charles Mangua, Son of Woman in Mombasa, Spear Books, published 2003, →ISBN, page 208:
   • And one of the things that elephants have to do, in addition to eating and drinking and being all elephanty, is to have a poo once in a while. 2013, Philip Ardagh, The Grunts All at Sea, Nosy Crow, →ISBN:
   • Mr Tembo tried to reply, but his large elephanty fingers were too clumsy to press the TALK button. 2020, Kid Normal and the Final Five, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, →ISBN:
   • The thought of the green elephant occurred in my brain, but only looks green and elephanty to the thinker (me). 2018, Daniel Cardinal, Gerald Jones, Jeremy Hayward, AQA A-level Philosophy Year 2: Metaphysics of God and Metaphysics of Mind, Hodder Education, →ISBN:

Forms